Jeremiah Smith is the new name at the top of the Heisman Trophy odds board, and the Ohio State wide receiver got there in a hurry. His four touchdown, 217 yard outing against Illinois flipped a race that Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss had led for most of the past week. College football betting markets reacted just as sharply to Chambliss’s tumble after Ole Miss’s blowout loss to Florida, and to a fresh wave of movement behind him out of Miami, Mississippi State and Florida. Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who has carried heavy expectations all season, has drifted out to some of his longest odds yet.
2026-27 Heisman Trophy betting favorites
Saturday reshuffled almost every name on the board. Smith’s breakout game vaults him past Chambliss and Miami’s Darian Mensah into the favorite’s role, while Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor and Florida’s Jadan Baugh have forced their way into the top tier on the back of statement wins. Here is how sportsbooks are pricing the Heisman Trophy race this week.
- Jeremiah Smith (WR, Ohio State): +250
- Darian Mensah (QB, Miami): +400
- Kamario Taylor (QB, Mississippi State): +550
- Jadan Baugh (RB, Florida): +1100
- Trinidad Chambliss (QB, Ole Miss): +1150
- CJ Carr (QB, Notre Dame): +1200
- Malachi Toney (WR, Miami): +1750
- Arch Manning (QB, Texas): +3000
Smith’s performance against Illinois was about as complete as it gets for a receiver chasing college football’s most quarterback heavy award: 12 catches, 217 yards and four touchdowns, including a 72 yard connection with quarterback Julian Sayin, in a 42-19 win that kept Ohio State unbeaten. Mensah did not blink. The Miami quarterback threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-3 rout of Central Michigan, part of a season in which he has thrown 14 touchdown passes against just 12 incompletions. Those two now sit clearly ahead of the field, with Taylor pushing into the conversation right behind them.
Chambliss’s run atop the board ended in the Swamp, where fourth ranked Ole Miss was run over by Florida, 52-28. Chambliss still put up 298 passing yards and two rushing touchdowns, but the loss knocked him from co-favorite into the middle of the pack. Florida running back Jadan Baugh was the one benefiting most, rushing for 142 yards and three touchdowns to notch his fifth straight 100 yard game, a streak matched at Florida only by Emmitt Smith and Fred Taylor, and his name has jumped into the top tier as a result.
Taylor has been the story of the last two weeks. The Mississippi State quarterback went 27 of 38 for 360 yards and three touchdowns, including the game winning drive, in a 31-24 comeback win over No. 19 Missouri. Manning went the other direction, managing just 201 yards with an interception in Texas’s win over Tennessee, and his odds have stretched out to some of the longest he has carried all season. Carr, meanwhile, keeps doing enough to stay in the second tier. The Notre Dame quarterback accounted for four total touchdowns, three through the air and one on the ground, in a 49-10 rout of rival Purdue that kept the Fighting Irish unbeaten.
Toney remains the clearest complement to Mensah’s case, catching six passes for 120 yards and a touchdown in that same win over Central Michigan. Further down the board, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin, Indiana’s Josh Hoover, USC’s Jayden Maiava and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton are all still in the mix behind unbeaten teams, though none has separated from the pack. Two names from earlier in the season are no longer part of the conversation. Oklahoma’s John Mateer, once a preseason Heisman favorite, has fallen off the board entirely after a turnover filled 34-6 loss to Georgia while he continues working back from offseason hand surgery, and Oregon’s Dante Moore has not recovered from his own upset loss earlier this month.
Recent Heisman Trophy history
There have been 90 Heisman Trophy winners (91 awards) since the first one in 1935. One player, Ohio State running back Archie Griffin, won the award twice, in 1974 and 1975. The award was originally called the DAC Trophy and was given out by the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, in recognition of the best college football player east of the Mississippi River. The award was later renamed for the club’s late athletic director, John Heisman, and the focus expanded to include college football players nationwide.
In the early years of the award, running backs dominated the field. It has been a different story in recent times, with quarterbacks winning the Heisman Trophy in eight of the last 10 seasons. All told, QBs lead the all-time list of winners by position with 39 Heisman wins.
| Season | Heisman Winner | Position | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Lamar Jackson | QB | Louisville |
| 2017 | Baker Mayfield | QB | Oklahoma |
| 2018 | Kyler Murray | QB | Oklahoma |
| 2019 | Joe Burrow | QB | LSU |
| 2020 | DeVonta Smith | WR | Alabama |
| 2021 | Bryce Young | QB | Alabama |
| 2022 | Caleb Williams | QB | USC |
| 2023 | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| 2024 | Travis Hunter | WR/CB | Colorado |
| 2025 | Fernando Mendoza | QB | Indiana |
USC now stands alone atop the school leaderboard with eight Heisman winners after Caleb Williams’ 2022 win pushed the Trojans past the pack. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Ohio State are tied for second with seven apiece. Alabama sits next with four, and two of those (DeVonta Smith in 2020 and Bryce Young in 2021) have come within the last 10 seasons.
Over the last 10 seasons, the SEC leads the conference race with four winners, the Big 12 has three, and the Big Ten, the ACC, and the since-dissolved Pac-12 have one apiece.
Heisman Trophy FAQs
Yes. Multiple online sportsbooks typically offer futures odds on potential Heisman winners, and those odds will shift as the season progresses.
Technically, all players in every division of college football are eligible for the Heisman. In practice, the award almost always goes to a player from one of the major Division I schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
A voting panel consisting mainly of media members who cover college football votes on the award. The voting panel also includes past Heisman winners and one sponsor vote that an online fan ballot decides.
Yes, though it’s extremely rare. Quarterbacks and running backs have dominated Heisman voting in most years. Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson remains the only primarily defensive player to win the award, taking it home in 1997. Colorado’s Travis Hunter came the closest since then, winning the 2024 Heisman as a true two-way player who racked up 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns at wide receiver while also picking off four passes and breaking up 11 more at cornerback. His offensive numbers were strong enough on their own that he doesn’t count as a purely defensive winner, but no player has impacted a Heisman race on defense the way he did in decades.